Attorney Abbe Lowell stood beside John Bolton in a federal courthouse in Maryland last week as Donald Trump’s former national security adviser pleaded not guilty to charges of mishandling classified information.
Three days later, Lowell was at a federal appeals court in Philadelphia arguing that President Trump’s choice of US attorney for New Jersey is unlawful. And on Friday, Lowell will be beside New York Attorney General Letitia James in Norfolk, Virginia, as she is arraigned on federal charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. James has called the charges “baseless.”
Lowell has for decades been a moth to the flame of Washington politics and scandal. He built his reputation by getting politicians out of legal trouble or advocating pointedly before television cameras to try to sway public opinion and influence prosecutors’ decision making.
Now, at 73, Lowell is one of the most prominent faces defending many of Trump’s perceived enemies in criminal investigations, security clearance revocations, and other matters.
“He’s a lawyers’ lawyer in that the politics aren’t what motivates the case,” said Mark Zaid, a high-profile Washington, DC, lawyer who represents whistleblowers. Zaid hired Lowell and other attorneys when the Trump administration revoked his security clearance. They filed a lawsuit, which is pending, to try to get it restored.
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“He argues for the rule of law and this administration is subverting the rule of law so much that I wish there was an army of Abbe Lowells who, even if they didn’t have his skill, that they have his desire to uphold the integrity of the system and the principles that this country was founded on,” Zaid said.
While Lowell is taking on Trump now, his past clients include Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner when they were questioned as part of the special counsel investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election. He also defended President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, who went to trial and was convicted of gun-related charges. Biden also pleaded guilty to tax crimes. (He was later pardoned.)
Earlier this year, Lowell left Winston & Strawn, the large DC law firm where he spent the past seven years, to set up his own firm to represent clients in the Trump administration’s crosshairs. He’s bolstered his team with a cadre of young lawyers.
In addition to James, Bolton and Zaid, Lowell is also representing others targeted by Trump, including Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor and several former FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors who were fired from their positions.